RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy with or without radiation therapy in treating patients who have esophageal cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the median and two-year disease-free and overall survival of patients with resectable esophageal cancer treated with neoadjuvant paclitaxel, cisplatin, and fluorouracil with concurrent radiotherapy.
• Determine the complete and partial responses in patients treated with this regimen.
• Assess the toxicity of this regimen in these patients.
• Determine the optimal dose of paclitaxel when administered in this regimen in these patients.
• Determine the effect of tumor tubulin isoform expression on chemosensitivity and overall survival of patients treated with this regimen.

OUTLINE: Patients receive paclitaxel IV over 3 hours and cisplatin IV over 1 hour on day 1. Treatment repeats every 3 weeks for 2 courses.

Beginning 3 weeks after completion of initial chemotherapy, patients receive concurrent chemoradiotherapy comprising paclitaxel IV over 1 hour and cisplatin IV over 1 hour on days 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29; fluorouracil IV continuously for 5 weeks; and radiotherapy daily 5 days a week for 5 weeks.

At 4-8 weeks after completion of chemoradiotherapy, patients may undergo surgical resection. Patients with local progressive disease after 2 courses of initial chemotherapy undergo surgical resection instead of receiving concurrent chemoradiotherapy.

Patients are followed within 6 weeks, every 3 months for 3 years, and then annually for 2 years.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 14-30 patients will be accrued for this study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma, squamous cell, adenosquamous, or undifferentiated carcinoma of the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction

  • Potentially resectable disease

• No malignant celiac node involvement

• No cervical esophageal carcinoma

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• 18 and over

Performance status:

• ECOG 0-2

Life expectancy:

• Not specified

Hematopoietic:

• Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,800/mm^3
• Platelet count at least 100,000/mm^3

Hepatic:

• Bilirubin no greater than 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
• AST no greater than 3 times ULN

Renal:

• Creatinine no greater than 1.5 mg/dL OR
• Creatinine clearance at least 60 mL/min

Other:

• No other malignancy within the past 3 years except nonmelanoma skin cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix
• No significant medical or psychiatric illness that would preclude study
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for at least 3 months after study

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• Not specified

Chemotherapy:

• No prior chemotherapy for esophageal cancer

Endocrine therapy:

• Not specified

Radiotherapy:

• No prior thoracic radiotherapy

Surgery:

• See Disease Characteristics
• No prior surgical resection of esophageal tumor